Abel Narayana
Introduction Abel Narayana is a Nendeeni Tribesman who was born during the time of the Great War. He is small and slight, with black hair and gold eyes that reflect his Contract with Gabriel. He looks up to his older brother, Cain, and adores his young brother, Seth. His childhood best friend was his cousin, Ananta, but they began to immensely dislike one another after Ananta's Rite of Passage. Abel was not popular among the Nendeeni because he was considered lesser than the warriors. His distaste for war led him to do gardening and other trivial tasks that the warriors referred to as "woman work." Even during his rite of passage, he chose to bind himself to a Kylan he felt sorry for, rather than one that was huge or powerful. Highly intelligent but disturbingly eccentric, he goes against the norm for a Nendeeni, and hates fighting. He's fascinated by studies of Alchemy. Story Warning! This information contains spoilers! Abel's childhood was the same as that of any other Nendeeni child. They weren't coddled by their parents, they were violent with each other, and they were trained for battle from the moment they could grasp a sword on. Abel was an inquisitive child, but he quickly grew frustrated with the fact that any question he could ask about war, fighting, weaponry, or elemental magic was easily answered, and very curtly. Like his close friend and cousin, Ananta, he grew bored with the lack of new stimuli and marked himself as a black sheep by going to the women of the tribe for guidance instead, an odd thing to do. Even the female children tended to go to the men. Gender really didn't matter. Some of the strongest warriors were women, but all those who did menial tasks like gardening or healing were looked down upon for doing what they called "woman work." Abel was one of these people. When Abel was ten (which left Cain at age fifteen and Seth at age eight), Ananta took several of his close friends with him to his Rite of Passage. Ananta asked Abel to accompany him, but Abel turned him down in favour of listening to Cain tell a story to some of the younger Tribesmen. This was lucky. Ananta's entire party, save for himself, died due to Ananta's arrogance and incompetence, Seth being one of them. Abel experienced raw anger and hatred for the first time in his life, not because Ananta had led his little brother to his death, but because he seemed to be completely unfazed by the fact, and unwilling to apologize. When Ananta began to rise in rankings, the rift between him and Abel grew worse, and when Ananta broke off into his own section of the Nendeeni army, Abel didn't go with him. Instead, he stayed behind and joined up with Supreme General Isidor's ranks for a short time. He was forced to watch Cain leave, as well, as the age gap disallowed Cain to remain behind with his brother. A few months later, Ananta the Wicked joined his group with Isidor's, reuniting Abel with his beloved brother and his hated cousin. Cain advised Abel to go through his Rite of Passage on his own, and Abel did so. It was a little ways off from the battlegrounds that Abel found an injured Kylan, a small black dragon that could not speak. Feeling sorry for it and aware of the Narayana tradition to Contract a winged lizard, Abel bound himself to it and named it Gabriel. He later explained to the creature through their telepathic link that his name was of mixed Nendeeni and Etudian origin, and that Abel hoped his Kylan's naming would bring about a change in the Great War. He got his wish a few years later, when the entire Nendeeni army's morale was lowered by a double arrest of both Isidor and Ananta. Grimly disappointed about his cousin and genuinely upset by Isidor's apparent betrayal, Abel stuck close to Kieran, who solemnly told them that the war was soon to be over. She was right. The Etudians obliterated the Nendeeni armies, and all that were not killed were imprisoned or forced into immediate slavery. Abel, quick-witted and patient in ways that the other Nendeeni warriors were not, was able to disguise himself for quite some time as an Etudian before the Failed Integration took place. He wore dark contacts to hide his pale eyes, and made sure that Gabriel was well hidden. He many many attempts to find his brother, but all of them ended in failure. A full year passed before a seventeen year old Abel got frustrated. He met with Gabriel in an alleyway close to the city limits, asking him to find Kieran, and through her, to find Cain. He was spotted by a small gang of Etudian thugs, and could not weasel his way out of being cornered. Before a fight broke out, a man with green eyes appeared in the alleyway and quietly demanded the men to back off. To Abel's shock, they obeyed. When the stranger asked Abel to introduce himself, he did so, as "Gabriel." The man asked Abel to follow him to his house. Upon reaching it and discovering that it was empty, Abel feared he'd been led into a trap. The man soothed his fears by finally introducing himself as King Cedric, the man who had just recently overthrown the tyrant Luka. He informed Abel that he knew exactly what he was, which made Abel come clean. The two were genuinely fascinated by one another's cultures and pasts, and they quickly became friends. Abel introduced Cedric to Gabriel, and met Rowan and the Tamers. Despite their less-than-warm greetings, Abel decided that Cedric could be the only one to truly integrate the Etudians and the Nendeeni. This unsteady truce was a farce, they both knew, and the fact that Abel had been attacked was undeniable proof of that. Realizing that they wanted the same thing, Cedric asked Abel to be his advisor. Abel accepted. Shortly after, Kieran passed a message from Cain to Gabriel, who passed it to Abel. Their communication began to flow again, though Cain's location remained a mystery. As they worked towards the Great Integration, and through it, and past it, their relationship passed the level of friendship and became romantic. This, too, sparked their desire to see all discrimination end. Abel's heart was warmed by the fact that Cedric saw no difference between two men loving one another and a man and a woman doing the same. Eventually, when all laws were written and the people were living in peace only two years after their meeting, Abel was able to continue his studies of alchemy and so much more. He uncovered and wrote many prophecies, and realized that Cedric was meant to be king forever. He worked to unlock the secret of the Philosopher's Stone, which he knew would grant Cedric eternal life. Cedric requested Abel to be by his side forever, and Abel accepted with the full intentions to bring Cain with them. These messages never made it through to Cain in their entirety. Late one night, Abel was awoken beside Cedric by agonizing pain and the echoes of screams in his mind. He choked on blood, and a fever overtook him. Rowan rushed to his aid, but realized immediately that the Sickness had taken hold of him. Gabriel was dead. Cedric grasped his scythe and left Abel's bedside, only to be cut down before Abel's eyes. It was then that Cain entered the room and looked down on his little brother, announcing his own plan for immortality and proclaiming that Abel was a traitor. Abel tangled his fingers in the dead lion's mane and closed his eyes, refusing to watch his brother take his life. He saw nothing, and died quickly. The Gods of Balance and Chaos, however, saw this as unacceptable. They revived Abel and Cedric, explaining to them both the terms of the God's Game, The two were separated again, and Belial awoke as the first reincarnation of Abel, but not the last. The Gods' words rang true in his ears, even though his mind was still so far gone. He would revive Cedric, they would be rid of the evil that Cain had become, and they would continue to protect the world they were meant to rule. See also: Abel's Reincarnations